Notts and bad light frustrate Middlesex

Close, day one: Nottinghamshire 161-2 v Middlesex

Neil Dexter and Ollie Rayner took a wicket apiece but Middlesex were otherwise frustrated on a slow opening day at Lord’s which was curtailed early due to bad light.

Nottinghamshire opener Steven Mullaney hit an unbeaten 88 but the visitors scored at little more than 2.3 an over.

Dexter struck in the middle of the morning session and then pouched the catch off Ollie Rayner’s bowling that removed England one-day star Michael Lumb and ended a stand of 115.

A murky late afternoon saw the players go off twice, wiping out most of the final session, and play was abandoned with 27 overs yet to be bowled in the day.

With Toby Roland-Jones injured and Corey Collymore missing for personal reasons, Middlesex recalled Isleworth-born Gurjit Sandhu for his first Championship match since July.

Unsurprisingly, given the overhead conditions, they chose to bowl having won the toss but Mullaney and Riki Wessels saw out the first hour.

With the main strike bowlers failing to make the breakthrough, the ball was thrown to Dexter – and he took a wicket with his third ball as Wessels was caught by Sam Robson, to leave Notts on 43-1 after 16 overs.

The visitors added another 30 by lunch and their steady approach took them through to tea with Mullaney and Lumb still at the crease, both having reached their half centuries.

Lumb though fell early in the curtailed evening session, another victim for the in-form Rayner, before bad light intervened soon afterwards.

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